“It just beggars belief apparently that some MPs have anonymously said they deserve a pay increase,” Mr Clegg said on his weekly LBC Radio phone-in. “They are living on a different planet to think that you can say to teachers and nurses and doctors, ‘You’re only going to get a one per cent increase in your pay for the next several years but we deserve a [32 per cent] increase’.

“I think it’s potty and it’s not going to happen, certainly if I’ve got anything to do with it.”

Mr Clegg said he hopes Ipsa will now “do the sensible thing” and restrict MPs pay.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that public sector workers would be “insulted” that MPs have declared “that what they do is of greater value”.

“I hope Ipsa will do the sensible thing and follow what we’re doing in the public sector generally, which is asking people to be very restrained in the pay increases they get,” Mr Clegg added.

“I flatly and totally disagree with it. I don’t know who put their names to this. Whoever did needs to think again and also needs to think about what signal it sends out to the constituents of MPs who are being asked to have real restraint and limits on how fast their own pay increases.”

The research by Ipsa found that 69 per cent of MPs thought they were underpaid on £65,738. The average level suggested for the salary was £86,250.

Cheryl Gillan, a former Cabinet minister in the Coalition, has warned that setting pay too low would mean that only the rich could afford to stand for Parliament.

Sir Nick Harvey, the former Lib Dem defence minister, last week said it was “not reasonable” to expect MPs to make “enormous” financial sacrifices and said pay rates must be high enough to attract the best candidates.

The government’s official submission to the watchdog agreed: “It is vital, as Ipsa identifies, that the opportunity to serve as an MP should not return to the previous system of being available only to those with independent means; nor should particular groups of people be deterred from standing for parliament.”